LONDON, Feb 11, 2010 (AFP) - Britain's swine flu hotline, launched seven months ago amid fears of a global pandemic of the virus, was switched off on Thursday after a steady fall in the number of cases reported here.

ATLANTA (AP) — Is the U.S. swine flu (H1N1) epidemic over? Federal health officials won't go so far as to say that, but on Friday they reported for the fourth week in a row that no states had widespread flu activity.

( Institute of Physics ) Social interaction between neighbors, work colleagues and other communities and social groups makes voluntary vaccination programs for epidemics such as swine flu, SARS or bird flu a surprisingly effective method of disease control.

Current research suggests that pandemic H1N1 influenza of swine origin has distinct means of transmission from the seasonal flu, yet does not result in the pathogenic severity of avian flu viruses.